Last week I hit a diet brick wall.
Up until then I had been coping fine. I was resisting cravings, changing my shopping habits and ordering a salad every time I went out to eat - and it was paying off.
Every time I was measured around 5-6cm had come off my stomach and the number on the scales was slowly moving in the right direction.
It made everything - even the aching muscles - worth it.
Not last week though. Suddenly my food cravings became unbearable. I found myself fantasising about fat, juicy burgers and pizzas dripping with cheese. I don't usually have much of a sweet tooth but the idea of cramming as much chocolate as possible in my mouth was bizarrely appealing. Walking to work past the Cornish pasty shop made me salivate and it took every ounce of self control not to sprint into KFC on the way home and eat all kinds of fried for dinner instead of the healthy, vegetable-laden dish I had planned.
But I resisted, telling myself that I'd be rewarded for my hard work. So when I stepped on to the scales and they barely moved it was more than disappointing, and when the tape measure said I'd only lost 2cm it was genuinely heartbreaking. And not just for me. I felt like I'd let my personal trainer at Fitness First, Hetty Alton, down too. She spends hours a week trying to help me get in shape, and watching me turn increasingly vibrant shades of purple while dripping with sweat can't be much fun for her, so I want to make her feel that her time has been worth it too. So when the results aren't as good as I'd like I really feel like a failure.
I've always prided myself on not being a quitter though. I like to say I'm tenacious, growing up my parents would probably have said 'stubborn' (or maybe something even less flattering) - either way, I don't give up easily and one setback wasn't going to make me give up. If anything it made me even more determined.
So last weekend not a drop of alcohol passed my lips, I've been cooking my healthiest recipes and I've been pushing myself even harder at the gym.
And this week, so far three people have told me (unprompted!) that I'm looking slimmer.
Yes, I still want a burger, but nothing tastes as good as getting a compliment like that feels.
